Regional Conference on Advancing Non Conventional Water Resources Management in the Mediterranean, 14-15 September 2011, Athens, Greece

1. Regional Conference on
Advancing Non-Conventional Water Resources
Management in the Mediterranean
How to effectively Engage the
Stakeholders and their Build Capacity
for NCWRM
14-15 September 2011
Hilton Hotel, Athens, Greece
David Hernández Gómez.
Euromediterranean Irrigators Community.

2. 1. INTRODUCTION
2. HOW TO EFFECTIVELY ENGAGE THE STAKEHOLDERS
AND THEIR BUILD CAPACITY FOR NCWRM
3. EXAMPLES OF GOOD PRACTICES AND COLLABORATION
BETWEEN IRRIGATION AND OTHER USERS
4. SPANISH DATA
5. CONCLUSIONS

3. 1. INTRODUCTION
WATER REUSE AND INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT
• Water reuse helps to improve the IWRM, providing
greater assurance of supply to users in several ways.
– Replacement pre-potable water for regenerated water.
– The contribution of regenerated water for irrigation without
allocation or new irrigation.
– Artificial recharge of aquifers with regenerated water.

4. 2. HOW TO EFFECTIVELY ENGAGE THE
STAKEHOLDERS AND THEIR BUILD CAPACITY
FOR NCWRM
These reasons could be summarized in 3 benefits:
economical, social and environmental
– Economic benefits
– Social benefits
– Environmental benefits

5. • Economic benefits:
– It provides quality food production, ensuring economic
source in a constant way.
– Reduction of expensive wastewater treatments by
recycling nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus
compounds in field water application.
– These compounds are beneficial to crops and degrade
organic matter.
– It is a new water source. It is a greater security of supply,
especially in semi-arid Mediterranean countries.

6. • Social benefits:
– The increase of water supply sources
– The maintenance of the rural population
– It reduces the spread of urbanism
– Quality tourism. Irrigation as a landscape element

7. • Environmental benefits:
– It avoids polluted water discharging to the rivers.
– It can stop the aquifers overexploitation and promote
recharge.
– Irrigation is the last user that purifies the water.
– It preserves and improves the environment and wetlands.
– It reduces the input of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The irrigated crops are real sinks of CO2.

8. 3. EXAMPLES OF GOOD PRACTICES AND COLLABORATION
BETWEEN IRRIGATION AND OTHER USERS
• Irrigators Community of Castellón which carried out a study together
with the University of the effect of irrigation on orange trees with
wastewaters.
• Irrigators Community Irrigation Canal Bajo del Algar
In 1983, the community started to use wastewater
This reuse of regenerated water is accomplished through a
commitment by the City of Benidorm and Irrigators Community. In the
agreement, the price of the wastewater is "Zero."
All treatment costs were borne by the City Council of Benidorm..

9. 5. SOME SPANISH DATA (2009):
• Wastewater treated users of the total:
– Irrigation: 72%
– Industrial: 4%
– Enviromental: 5%
– Golf course: 13%
– Domestic: 6%
Flow available Reuse water % of
3 3
(hm /year) flow (hm /a) reuse
3.375,16 447,34 13,25%
• The current amount of water reuse flows is: 447 Hm3/year
• It is foreseen to reuse 650 Hm3/year : total amount of 1.100 Hm3/year

10. 4. CONCLUSIONS
– Water reuse for irrigation provides a guarantee of water
supply much higher than conventional sources, especially in
coastal areas.
– Importance of the achievement agreement between the
agricultural and domestic users
– Irrigators Communities which give up their water rights for
domestic users shall have a preferential right to reuse that
water, once it has been treated by the first user (domestic).

11. THANK YOU VERY MUCH
FOR YOUR ATTENTION